I don't want to be fat anymore!!!

Well, I think you can totally eat Chick-fill-a and Digiorno and still lose weight. I eat fairly clean about 85% of the time and have regular splurges and am losing just fine.

I suggest you take some time to read through the stickie threads at the top of this forum. There's a lot of good information in there that might answer some of your questions and give you some ideas.

I hesitate to tell people what to do because we all have different paths to weight loss success. Here is what works for me. YMMV.
* keep carbs on most days to 80-100 grams, but allow occasional guilt-free splurges over that
* zig-zag my calories throughout the week with a weekly calorie target instead of a daily one, allowing me to have splurges at social events, restaurant meals, etc., without going over my deficit and without making me feel deprived
* eat a treat if I want it, just account for it in my food diary
* eat clean most of the time and enjoy guilt-free splurges
* eat enough protein and healthy fats. I aim for about 120 grams protein and 60 grams fat daily. Hardly ever hit the protein one but I'm working on it
* do heavy weight training twice a week, full body, preferably compound exercises and free weights
* mix up the rest of your exercise with mostly interval training and some steady-state cardio doing things you enjoy. I rarely do the same thing more than 2-3x in a month. Just do what sounds fun, challenging and fits into my schedule that day.
* set your daily calories to your BMR and eat your exercise calories on top of that but you don't have to eat them all on the same day (see zig-zag above)
* try to get in your vegetables and some fruits, eat full-fat versions of things as the low-fat options are really less healthy. In other words, real foods not frankenfoods
* titrate down your weight loss goals as you are losing, i.e. if you have 75+ pounds to lose, aim for a 2#/week weight loss, 50-75#, aim for 1.5#/week, 25-50#, aim for 1#/week, less than 25#, aim for 0.5#/week. This allows you to keep eating a healthy enough amount of calories to keep your metabolic furnace burning and to get to your goal eating in a way that's sustainable for life
* practice flexible dieting, i.e., it's OK to take a diet break once in awhile, maybe for a day like on Thanksgiving and Christmas, or for a week or two while on vacation. This doesn't mean you have to gorge yourself but just enjoy some splurges and don't worry about things for awhile. Some experts advocating taking full breaks for dieting for a week or two every few months. It can be a good thing.

Those are the main things that pop into my head. Some of it might work for you, some not.

So should I still to the recommended 1550 that MFP gave me or continue with the 1200? What about when I workout? If that's the case, when I workout, I should be eating 1800-2000 calories that day. Is that accurate?

These numbers are all estimates and may not be entirely accurate, but I think it's best to start with MFP's recommendations and then tweak in small increments as necessary. You don't want to train your body to "get by" on a minimal number of calories and then have no place to go when you hit a plateau. And then there's the sustainability issue. How long can you stick to 1200 calories a day? Long enough to lose 100 pounds and to tough it through however many plateaus it takes to get there? The rest of your life? People talk about how much hard work it takes to lose weight, but IMHO that's wrong headed. You need to think about how hard you'll be willing and able to work to keep the weight off for the rest of your life, and let that be your guide. If you don't want to bust your butt on a restricted, near starvation diet for the next 50 years, then don't do it now. It's not worth it to lose an extra pound or two a month.

1800 - 2000 calories, exercise calories included, is what I need to eat to maintain my weight. And I weigh only 123 pounds.

^^^This^^^ I want to be able to EAT! Therefore, I opted for 1 lb a week (sometimes I lost more, sometimes less) and I eat at least 1/2 my calories or more back. I use a HRM so my count is more accurate. Enjoy this journey, you will learn a lot about yourself, if you are willing to be patient and learn. Good luck, you can do this.

I've been doing this since the end of October and am nearly at goal. I've been losing weight consistently, no plateaus. I have not been following a lot of the conventional wisdom people recommend -- I eat almost no fat, I drink almost no water (about 1500 ml of liquid in other forms daily), I don't give a **** about cardio vs. strength training, I don't have a heart rate monitor, etc.

What I do have is a food scale. I don't rely on what anything says is a portion. Especially with things like chicken breasts and bananas, which you seem to eat a lot of, they aren't all the same size. Manufacturers are required to give you at least as much as they say, but they aren't penalized for giving you extra.

And things like salad dressing and peanut butter are sticky and hard to measure by tablespoon, while you can measure very accurately by weighing your food before and after adding the sticky food.

Before giving up, just start logging what you typically eat without trying to lose weight. Log everything, even the stuff you don't want to admit to eating, which may mean closing your diary. Do make sure you are getting sufficient protein (looks like you are), as well as all vitamins (not just A and C), calcium/iron/other minerals. Without ALL the nutrients you need, you can't do anything with the calories you do eat except store them in fat. It's like building a house with lumber, bricks, shingles and windows but no screws or nails. All you end up with is a lot of stuff piled up in the front yard.

After about a month of that, you'll know what it takes to maintain your weight. You'll need to reduce your calories or increase your exercise by 500 calories to lose one pound a week. A whole month may sound like a frustrating long time before you start actually losing weight, but this is going to be the rest of your life. Start out using accurate methods, and you can continue to benefit as long as you live.

What if you find, after a month, that your consistent daily intake is far below MFP's estimate of what it takes to maintain your current weight, that you're getting all the protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals you need, yet you aren't losing anything? Then discuss your hormones with your doctors. Before there were blood tests for low thyroid, that type of metabolic mismatch was exactly how low thyroid was diagnosed.

I got so confused when I started here 50 days ago that I kind of shut down for a day to process it all. I decided I would find what worked for me, and began writing down everybody''s advice. I started with the ones who said "Eat to your MFP target", "eat back your calories" and "create a workout program designed for your level of fitness and to your stated goals." I read a number of off-site studies and determined that my goals are fat loss and finding something I enjoy, which increases the likelihood that I will create3 a true lifestyle change rather than an endurance test of how much torture I could take. I increased my water intake when my MFP friends noticed it was too low (thank you all my MFP friends!) and here what has happened so far:

Neck: 3/4 inch lost
Waist: 1 1/4 inch lost
Hips: 1 inch lost
Pants size: 1 size lost
Bra size: 1.5 band size lost
Weight: 8 lbs lost

Of these numbers, I'm happiest with the size measurements, not the weight. Truly, my goal is to be healthy and fit.

The point isn't that you should do what I say, or what he says, or what anybody says. You should be thankful and take everybody's advice, and create a strategy to find what works for you. Include your physician, in case you (like my daughter) have a thyroid problem, or a tendency toward diabetes, or something else.

Concentrate on being healthy and changing your lifestyle to keep you fit and healthy over the long run. I believe the rest will fall into place as it should.

Oddly enough if you undereat when trying to cut, you'll end up stuck at your current weight as if you're maintaining. Looking at your info I'd say you're eating too little and that is where you're going wrong. You need to be eating at least 1600 a day by the looks of things. I know it's weird, but honestly, I tried the starving myself thing and found I lost more when I ate more. (WIthin reason, obviously.) Do what MPF has set you to for weight loss so that your values all add up to 0 left at the end of the day.

I think you are on the right track! I saw this saying that was something like "it takes four weeks for you to notice a difference, and twelve weeks for everyone else to see the difference"... it's totally true. The results will not happen overnight and you will feel like you are working out to NO effect, but don't give up!!! Track your measurements, not just pounds on the scale. Sometimes your difference will show in inches, but you probably won't notice it without measuring (I was SHOCKED one time, I hadn't lost a single pound in forever and I was feeling HORRIBLE about it and then I looked at my measurements and I had lost a full inch off my hips. I was like, screw the scale, I'll take it!!!).

As for changes to your current plan, I think you are doing great... but if you wanted to eat back half of your exercise calories that would probably help you (worked for me) and also try lifting heavier weights. That actually helped me a LOT. Strength training is what really kick started my weight loss... I know cardio is what burns fat, but I think there's a threshhold where it just doesn't do that much for you until you build your muscles. I didn't do anything that intense, I just did my Jillian Michaels videos with 8 pound weights instead of 3s. I had sore muscles, but I saw results FAST. I definitely don't look overly muscular or bulky either, just strong in a good way and leaner (I had been a little worried about that, because I didn't want to start looking manly).

Also, a really yummy blog where you can get good recipes for low calorie food that feels like you are cheating but you're not:
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/

Best wishes to you!!!

Well, I think you can totally eat Chick-fill-a and Digiorno and still lose weight. I eat fairly clean about 85% of the time and have regular splurges and am losing just fine.

I suggest you take some time to read through the stickie threads at the top of this forum. There's a lot of good information in there that might answer some of your questions and give you some ideas.

I hesitate to tell people what to do because we all have different paths to weight loss success. Here is what works for me. YMMV.
* keep carbs on most days to 80-100 grams, but allow occasional guilt-free splurges over that
* zig-zag my calories throughout the week with a weekly calorie target instead of a daily one, allowing me to have splurges at social events, restaurant meals, etc., without going over my deficit and without making me feel deprived
* eat a treat if I want it, just account for it in my food diary
* eat clean most of the time and enjoy guilt-free splurges
* eat enough protein and healthy fats. I aim for about 120 grams protein and 60 grams fat daily. Hardly ever hit the protein one but I'm working on it
* do heavy weight training twice a week, full body, preferably compound exercises and free weights
* mix up the rest of your exercise with mostly interval training and some steady-state cardio doing things you enjoy. I rarely do the same thing more than 2-3x in a month. Just do what sounds fun, challenging and fits into my schedule that day.
* set your daily calories to your BMR and eat your exercise calories on top of that but you don't have to eat them all on the same day (see zig-zag above)
* try to get in your vegetables and some fruits, eat full-fat versions of things as the low-fat options are really less healthy. In other words, real foods not frankenfoods
* titrate down your weight loss goals as you are losing, i.e. if you have 75+ pounds to lose, aim for a 2#/week weight loss, 50-75#, aim for 1.5#/week, 25-50#, aim for 1#/week, less than 25#, aim for 0.5#/week. This allows you to keep eating a healthy enough amount of calories to keep your metabolic furnace burning and to get to your goal eating in a way that's sustainable for life
* practice flexible dieting, i.e., it's OK to take a diet break once in awhile, maybe for a day like on Thanksgiving and Christmas, or for a week or two while on vacation. This doesn't mean you have to gorge yourself but just enjoy some splurges and don't worry about things for awhile. Some experts advocating taking full breaks for dieting for a week or two every few months. It can be a good thing.

Those are the main things that pop into my head. Some of it might work for you, some not.

^^^^^ Love this post.

Lots of great suggestions here. Well, except for the "eat your exercise calories back" ones. I just don't agree with that. The whole point is calorie deficit. If you eat back the calorie deficit you've created, there is no more deficit. It's your choice of course. Me personally, I don't lose weight when I do that. I just maintain.

More protein, more water, more veggies, less sugar, etc. These are all a great!

I wish you lots of luck! It's not an easy journey. But you can do it.

If these changes don't work (and maybe even in the meantime) why not go to your doctor and have your thyroid checked just in case? Many people have a hard time losing weight due to thyroid issues.

I think it's probably way to early to worry about checking the thyroid.

And if you think eating back exercise calories erases your deficit, you are misinformed and don't understand the way MFP is set up. If, for example, you tell MFP that you want to lose 1# per week, it gives you a deficit of 500 calories per day (3500 per week) before you have done any exercise. Now, let's say you exercise a lot a burn an average of 500 calories per day through exercise, now you are in a 1000 calorie deficit per day (7000 calories per week). So, if you eat back that 500 calories you burned through exercise, you are still at a 500 calorie per day deficit (or 3500 calories per week).

And, unless you are very obese (a good 75# over your goal weight or more), you shouldn't be trying to lose as much as 2# per week as that will probably result in way too much loss of LBM (lean body mass) which is the muscles you need to keep your metabolism burning hotter and to make you look better once you've lost the layer of fat over them.

I would honestly recommend that you meet with your primary care physician and talk to him/her about what you can do, get some labs done to make sure it's nothing like diabetes or thyroid issues, and go from there.